The response of the NFU has been to rail against proposed restrictions on environmentally harmful pesticides and push for further expansion of agricultural technology and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy to protect industrial farmers.

Subsidies were high on the agenda at this week's G8 summit, perhaps unsurprisingly when OECD nations subsidise agriculture to the tune of $252bn (£163bn) per year. Questions as to whether the industrialisation and globalisation of food production are the solution, or actually a large part of the problem, were inevitably pushed to one side.

But in Greater Manchester, a group of growers and buyers are quietly demonstrating that alternative models of fresh food wholesale markets are possible. Less than two years ago, Manchester Veg People (MVP) was set up as a non-profit-distributing co-operative to bring together organic, sustainable farmers with potential customers – primarily in the restaurant and catering industries. The simple idea was to help plan and co-ordinate supply and demand of fresh fruit and vegetables, while sharing resources, knowledge and skills.

In an era when the purchasing power of major customers (notably supermarkets) has been held responsible for pushing wholesale prices down so far that some crops need to be sold for a lower price than their cost of production, the co-operative strives to make the relationship between grower and buyer one that is symbiotic and mutually supportive, rather than parasitic.

Producers, which range in size from small city market gardens to a 150-acre site, are able to agree fair prices and stable markets for their crops while buyers, including the University of Manchester catering service, are able to source ingredients fresh from the fields, meaning less waste and lower costs, while meeting increasing customer demand for high-quality, locally-produced, eco-friendly meals.

In their first active year, MVP enabled the sale of over £22,000 of produce. That may not sound a lot in the context of a multibillion farming industry, but considering it was delivered with minimal resources, using borrowed transport, storage and office space, it offers just a glimpse of what is possible.

To enable the scheme to grow as it could, they have now launched a crowdfunder campaign to cover costs of their own van and cold-storage, under the slogan: "Let's get the Greater Manchester food revolution moving."

The longterm vision of MVP is to help make sustainable and organic farming practices a viable business option, particularly for smaller, independent producers. Co-ordinator Katie Brandon explains: "Our model supports existing growers, who have particularly struggled over the last two growing seasons due to the unpredictable weather, but also new people into farming – by trying to make food production a viable way to make a living. This is something we desperately need in the Northwest – and across the UK. If we want more of our food produced locally and sustainably, then we need more people to grow it for us."

The dream of expanding acres of organic farms across the Northwest echoes the vision of charitable social enterprise the Kindling Trust, which helped to establish MVP (author's disclosure: I do some freelance press/PR work for the trust).

Helen Woodcock of Kindling says: "Historically, there have been very low levels of government support for small scale organic producers and the purchase prices offered by big buyers are often unrealistically low. The Manchester Veg People co-op has shown that there are viable ways of moving towards a carbon positive society that meet business needs without relying on the poverty of others or the unsustainable use of resources."

Wresting food production from the grip of multinational commerce may be an impossible dream in our current society, but MVP demonstrate that with imagination and creative drive, there are ways around at least some of the obstacles to healthier and less environmentally damaging agriculture. In the long term, the solutions to the crises in agriculture and the environment may be found not in the G8 and EU conference halls, but the fresh fields of Cheshire and Lancashire.